No Promised Return Date

The day I was named Crown Princess, the sun shone brightly in the depths of winter. On the day of the Crown Prince's wedding, spring had arrived, and the sunlight was brighter than ever. I was carried in a small sedan chair, amid the unending crackle of firecrackers and the layers of festive celebration, and brought into the Eastern Palace through a side gate. Only when I closed my eyes at the end of this life did I realize that when snow fell over the Eastern Palace, the towering palace walls that had trapped me and brought my life to an end actually looked quite beautiful. The person holding me was trembling slightly. I remembered snow from years ago, settling on plum blossoms from years ago, covering my heart. And the person I met in the early spring of that year, beneath such beautiful skies, still lived in my heart just as they had then. "If there is another life, I'll recognize you at a glance. But I'm a little afraid. If I find you, should I acknowledge you?" He lowered his voice. "Then I'll look for you. I'll recognize you right away." Everything returned to the beginning. Xiao Chengyan's grip tightened again and again. The whole realm was practically within his grasp, so why, when he looked at that girl in red, riding with the wind, did he understand with such bewilderment and sorrow that he couldn't hold on to her? Reading Guide: 1. This story has a happy ending, so read without worry. 2. There are angst-filled parts, so watch out for emotional damage. 3. Both the heroine and the second female lead are reborn. 4. Find me on Weibo: Jinjiang Xueman Tou New story in my profile: "The Eastern Palace's Guide to Playing Along." If you're interested, feel free to check it out and save it~ *Xianchi died on the night of her wedding to the Duke's heir. As she looked back on her life, it all felt like a dream of yellow millet. Three years earlier, the Chi family had brought her back to the capital and sent her to the Eastern Palace under an assumed name. She lay low beside the Crown Prince, waiting for a chance to pull Ning Xun from his position. Under the Chi family's watchful eye, she had spent three years pretending to be Ning Xun's devoted lover, convinced she had never let her mask slip. Except for those brief moments when the sharpness in Ning Xun's eyes, not yet hidden, would startle her. It was as if he had known from the beginning that she was just a hidden piece in someone else's game of chess, and that he was merely playing along with her. After a great fire in the Eastern Palace, she completed her mission, turned around, and married into the Duke of Zhenguo's household, only to die on her wedding night. *Xianchi woke with a start in the carriage taking her back to the capital. In her previous life, she had seemed to be living in a fog, dragged forward by others. In this new life, she wanted to see every road beneath her feet clearly. If so, she might as well stay in the Eastern Palace a little longer. It was only a matter of acting in front of Ning Xun. Once you've done it, it gets easier the second time. *In her previous life, Xianchi had been kept in the dark and knew nothing of many things. For instance, she didn't know that not long after her death, the new emperor had seized the throne with an iron fist, and that he was none other than the man from the Eastern Palace, who had supposedly died in the fire three months earlier. On the seventh night after her death, a snowy night, the new emperor stood alone, holding an umbrella over her gravestone all night. Because she'd once muttered on a snowy day in the Eastern Palace, while waiting for him to return, that she didn't like getting snow all over herself because it made her cold. After that, he never made her wait for him again. But he would never get to wait for her again, either. *Little scene: In her previous life, not long after Xianchi entered the Eastern Palace, she made plum blossom pastries herself and brought them to the study. Ning Xun smiled as he accepted the food box, then personally guided her in drawing a winter-solstice countdown picture. After returning to her room, Xianchi told her maid, "Bring me a damp cloth. I touched something dirty just now." In the study, Ning Xun didn't even look before tossing the food box to his confidant. "How could I dare eat anything of hers? Take it out and feed it to the dogs." As it happened, Xianchi's maid saw the plum blossom pastries being tossed out for the dogs. When she went back and reported it, Xianchi merely said in a lighthearted voice, "Oh, I was planning to feed them to the dogs anyway." In this life, Xianchi had wasted quite a few days before remembering that she hadn't brought Ning Xun any food yet. If the Chi family's spies saw it, she would seem far too negligent in carrying out her duties. But she spent only half an hour in the small kitchen, and hadn't managed to make a single decent plum blossom pastry because she was out of practice, when Ning Xun walked in. He picked one at random from the pile of charred pastries, took a bite, and praised it with a straight face: "Delicious." Then he took her hand and led her out. "You've been kneading dough for a long time. Be careful not to hurt your hands." Theme: What seems like a twist of fate may well have been destined all along.